The Hands of Men
by Sparanda
Summary: Fate determined to throw a continent into chaos. Fate didn't predict a ninja coming to wreck their plans. Then again, who can predict the #1 Most Unpredictable Knuckheaded Ninja?
1. Enter the ninja, Naruto Uzumaki!

...ARCHADIA CAME FORWARD OFFERING TERMS OF PEACE. OR, AS ONE MIGHT RATHER PUT IT, TERMS OF DALMASCA'S SURRENDER.

LORD RAMINAS, KING OF DALMASCA - AND MY DEAR FRIEND - HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO ACCEPT THESE TERMS. IT WAS, THUS, ONLY WITH RELUCTANCE THAT HE SET OUT FOR NALBINA FORTRESS - NOW UNDER ARCHADIAN OCCUPATION - TO AFFIX HIS SEAL TO THE EMPEROR'S TREATY OF PEACE.

THE KING HAD SCARCE DEPARTED HIS ROYAL CITY OF RABANASTRE WHEN THE REMNANTS OF THE ORDER MADE THEIR RETURN. AND NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON, FOR A TERRIBLE REVELATION AWAITED THEM.

THE TREATY WOULD BE SIGNED WITH STEEL AND WRIT IN ROYAL BLOOD.

~ MEMOIRS OF MQS HALIM ONDORE IV

CHAPTER 12: OF THE FALL OF KINGDOMS

* * *

Many years had passed. Hundreds of years since all of his friends had died, mostly of natural causes. In all that time, the Elemental Nations had given way to the rise of new rulers. The art of the shinobi was long dead. Now wars were fought with thousands upon thousands of marching soldiers, sword and shield in hand; massive towers and castles invaded by an unending amount of men fighting for one reason or another.

Technology had rapidly advanced after the fall of shinobi. Large catapults and airships powered by "magic" moved and fought alongside the soldiers that marched to their captains' orders.

He liked the airships.

"I'll never understand how they get them to fly," a seemingly young boy said as he watched the battle overhead.

"Don't you know of skystones, boy?" an armored soldier nearby responded.

The boy laughed. "Where I come from, they needed huge balloons to keep anything in the air like that, and they didn't move nearly as fast."

"Where in Ivalice do you come from where they use balloons for airships?" the man laughed and walked away.

_'Ha, when I lived there it wasn't called Ivalice,'_ the boy said to himself..

"You there!" a blond-haired soldier called out. He was standing over a young-looking boy who seemed to be injured. "Can you hear me?"

The soldier from before said to him, "It's as I feared. They're slowing us down."

The young blond spoke up, walking towards the gathered men in front of the boy. "Are you itching so much for a fight that you'd leave the boy to die then?" While his voice was bright and almost playful, the blond's eyes were set in an intimidating stare at the man.

The soldier backed away, unnerved by the cold blue eyes that shouldn't have been present on the younger blond man. "I didn't mean all that now," he said with a nervous laugh. "I just meant we should avoid taking damage from now on."

"I agree," the soldier with dirty-blond hair said. "Not everyone is here for the love of battle. The boy fights to defend his home." The other soldier walked away, muttering under his breath. The blond soldier turned back to the fallen boy. "What is your name, son?"

"Reks, sir," the young one coughed out. "My name is Reks." He looked weakened, but nothing a few bandages couldn't fix.

"Good, Reks. My name is Basch. You suffered some cuts, but you are still whole. Can you stand?" Basch offered his hand to the boy and helped him up. "Think you can fight?"

"I'm fine, sir."

Basch scrutinized the boy carefully. "How old are you, Reks?"

"Seventeen, sir," Reks replied.

The young blond spoke up from behind Basch, "Same as me then." He smiled at the two armored men. "My name is Naruto."

This wasn't true. By a long shot. In fact, Naruto was close to being a thousand years old. A combination of the chakra from the Kyuubi and Naruto's own connection with nature through the toads' sage training had extended Naruto's life beyond all extremes. As far as Naruto could tell, he was for all intents and purposes immortal.

He could still die through battle, assuming anyone or anything could damage him enough. His body would never grow old and break down, though. Illness and old age would never bother Naruto for the foreseeable future.

Immortality had its price, though. Naruto had been forced to watch his friends and allies grow weary and die when he could not. Some of them had even grown bitter towards him simply because he was not forced to share in their suffering. Fortunately, some of his friends had lived longer than others.

"So young," Basch whispered. "Family?" he asked the two of them.

"My brother is all I have left, sir," Reks replied. "He's two years younger than me, living in Rabanastre."

"I never knew my parents," Naruto answered, "and all of my friends died a long time ago." Basch looked saddened by this, but noticed the resolve in Naruto's eyes.

"You're both barely old enough to be men," Basch said to them. "You shouldn't be forced to wield a sword."

"No, sir," Reks countered. "I want to fight. For my homeland, for my parents." Basch looked to Naruto.

"Where I come from, children are taught from a young age to defend themselves," Naruto explained. "I'm no stranger to war, Captain Basch."

Basch's reply was cut off as another armored soldier ran up to them. "It's time, Basch! Save the discussion for later. We must reach the King before they act or all out efforts will be in vain!"

"I'm aware of the situation." Basch looked around at the gathered men. There were not even a dozen of them there, including Naruto (who could create an army if needed, but no one knew that yet). "Keep wary, we will surely meet enemy soldiers across this gate."

The men nodded and followed the captain through the gate. Sure enough, only a few moments later two men wearing different armor from Basch's group approached from around a corner.

The larger group took care of the newcomers with ease before moving on. One of their company had gone ahead with a few soldiers, likely to deal with other enemies in the tower.

Naruto took down his opponents handily. A thousand years of shinobi training made sure that he could move freely and quickly, even while wearing the Dalmascan armor.

After several encounters, Basch's group made their way onto a short bridge. The group took down the enemy soldiers quickly before making their way across, only to be stopped when a small air fighter swooped down to block them.

The small airship's guns proved more powerful than its size let on, taking down most of the company. Naruto watched as Basch pushed Reks out of the line of fire before clashing his sword against the ship's armor.

_'This is getting us nowhere,'_ Naruto thought. _'I didn't want to show off a lot of my power here, but we've got to get through.'_ He began charging a Rasengan in his right hand, only to stop when Basch stepped forward with a determined face.

The grizzled man brought his hands up and shot a massive wave of energy at the airship, damaging its engines and forcing it to fly away. Naruto let the ball of energy in his hand dissipate as he stared at the captain.

"How the hell did you do that?" he wondered.

Basch spared a glance at the younger blond. "Dalmascan captains are trained in the ways of magic, son," he answered. "Let's keep moving. His Majesty should be just ahead!"

The company continued forward. "Is His Majesty unharmed?" Reks asked aloud as they moved, cutting down more enemies along the way.

"He'll agree to an unconditional surrender," Basch replied. "They would not dare touch him until the wax on his seal is dry."

"But if we arrive after he signed the treaty-"

"Wait," Basch commanded. They could hear footsteps moving towards them. A group of enemy soldiers, most likely. "Quickly, Reks, Naruto!" The company made their way up the stairs to the top area of the tower. The room where the King would sign the treaty was nearby.

"Sir!" Reks called. "We have little time! You must go to the King. I'll handle these!"

Basch looked doubtful, but Naruto spoke, "I'll stay with him. You won't be seeing us die today, captain."

Basch nodded. "Fight well," he offered before leaving.

"I always do," Naruto muttered.

He and Reks took out the group of enemies quickly. Reks had suffered a few more cuts, but Naruto looked unharmed. In fact, Reks could not recall seeing Naruto hit by any attacks since they had arrived. The seventeen year-old was about to ask his companion about this until said companion grabbed Reks and pulled him aside, just before entering the King's chamber.

"Naruto, what-"

"Quiet," the shinobi whispered. Reks looked fearful.

Silence reigned for a moment before…

"What of the two boys that were with you… 'Basch'?" The voice was unfamiliar, and it stressed Basch's name with emphasis.

"They would have been here by now." Naruto closed his eyes in focus, trying to recognize any of the voices. The one that had answered sounded familiar, but it was not Basch.

"Then they must have fallen to the soldiers," the first voice explained. "Any gain from marking them traitors?" Naruto's eyes snapped open and he had to cover Reks' mouth to stifle a gasp.

"Neither of them seemed to be from noteworthy families." Reks motioned to Naruto to let his mouth free. The shinobi did so quietly.

"That's an Archadian accent," the boy whispered. "Could Captain Basch be…?"

"Mark them traitors anyway," the voice commanded. "It will demoralize Dalmasca and prevent any future uprisings. Now, I believe we have a show to put on."

Naruto and Reks pulled further back into the shadows of the hallway as a group of soldiers ran into the treaty room, where they knew the King was now certainly dead.

"Seize the insurgent!" the leader of the new group called.

"Well, so much for peaceful negotiations," the first voice from before said.

"We'll never surrender to you!" the other voice, the one similar to Basch, countered. "We are not cattle to be sold to a traitor king!"

"But the war is over, my dear captain. You have lost." Reks made to rush into the room at that point, but Naruto quickly knocked him out through a pressure point on the boy's soldier. He had heard all he needed to hear from the treaty room.

The bodies of Reks and Naruto were not found in the tower.

* * *

A cool wind blew across the Dalmascan desert and Naruto looked at the small fire he had built. Reks had yet to wake up after being knocked out, but Naruto had carried him away from the towers easily enough.

**"Naruto."**

A deep voice rumbled from the back of Naruto's consciousness.

"Yo, Kurama," Naruto said out loud. "It's been a while since you came up to chat."

The fox spirit chuckled with a deep, menacing voice. **"Haven't seen the need. Watching you run around this new world trying to figure out airships has been entertaining on its own."**

"Damn fox. What did you come up to talk about anyway? I know you wouldn't wake up just to torment me."

The fox laughed fully this time, a full-hearted chuckle echoing throughout Naruto's mind that shook his head. "You underestimate me, Naruto." Naruto grimaced, muttering under his breath. **"I want to talk about the boy you rescued,"** Kurama added, sounding serious now.

Naruto sighed and looked over at Reks. "I know you said I shouldn't interact much with the people of Ivalice until I learn more about the culture, but I wasn't just gonna leave him to die, Kurama."

**"It's not that,"** the fox grumbled. **"That boy was meant to die in that tower, Naruto."**

"What do you mean he was 'meant' to die?"

**"I mean whatever gods govern this land now, they willed that boy to die in the group with you and the captain…"** The fox paused.

"Something else on your mind?" Naruto pondered, truly curious.

**"If the gods of this land said that boy was supposed to die, he should have died,"** the fox muttered. **"But obviously, he's sitting right in front of us, unconscious but very much alive."**

"So what are you getting at?"

**"You overturned fate."**

"I what?"

**"The gods, or we'll just call them 'Fate' for now, said the boy was to die, but you saved him."** Naruto's eyes widened. **"Yes, you have it now. Fate did not account for you intervening."**

"So does that make me the master of Fate?" Naruto laughed.

**"Not yet, boy,"** the fox grumbled. **"It just means they didn't know you would be there. If Fate is still watching, they'll know that something messed up their decision. They'll be watching for something else like this happening, Naruto."**

Naruto laughed and stood up to look at the night sky above him. "Kurama, you should know better than anyone that I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the #1 Unpredictable Ninja!" He pointed a finger dramatically at the sky. "I don't give a shit about 'Fate' or the gods behind it!"

* * *

_Chapter 1 End_

_Hello everyone, and welcome to my first attempt at writing fanfiction in several years. As you have probably realised by now, this will be a crossover between Naruto and Final Fantasy 12._

_Before I go any further, I'd like to give credit to Kenchi618. I took inspiration for this story from his "True Warriors Never Die" and "Shinobi of the High Seas" stories. Go check him out if you like Naruto crossovers. He does good work._

_I'll be keeping just about everything for this story in English. The only Japanese I'll be keeping are things like "Rasengan" or "jutsu" that are already prevalent in the English version of Naruto. No honorifics (aside from sensei) and no Japanese technique names._

_This chapter was fairly short, but future chapters will likely be longer. I will warn that I have a record of not finishing stories that I start, but I really want to write this one, so let's all hope I don't lose motivation._


	2. The Yellow Flash

PRETENSES LEFT BY THE WAYSIDE, THE ARCHADIAN FORCES RESUMED THEIR ADVANCE TOWARD RABANASTRE. DALMASCA'S DOOM HAD BEEN DECIDED.

TO MAKE RESISTANCE WOULD SERVE NO END. WITH THIS FOREMOST IN MY THOUGHTS, I, TO THE PEOPLE OF DALMASCA: "SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF DALMASCA, I BID YOU LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS. RAISE SONGS OF PRAYER IN THEIR STEAD. PRAYER FOR HIS MAJESTY KING RAMINAS, EVER MERCIFUL. A MAN DEVOTED WHOLLY TO PEACE.

"PRAYER, TOO, FOR THE NOBLE PRINCESS ASHE, WHO, WROUGHT WITH GRIEF AT HER KINGDOM'S DEFEAT, HAS TAKEN HER OWN LIFE."

"KNOW ALSO THAT CAPT. BASCH FON RONSENBURG, FOR INCITEMENT OF SEDITION AND THE ASSASSINATION OF HIS ROYAL MAJESTY (H.R.M.), KING RAMINAS, HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF HIGH TREASON AND PUT TO HIS DEATH.

"THEY WHO AT THIS LATE HOUR CHOOSE STILL THE SWORD ARE CUT OF THE SAME CLOTH AS THE CAPT.: TRAITOR'S WHO WOULD LEAD DALMASCA TO HER RUIN."

DALMASCA'S SURRENDER WITHOUT TERMS WAS SOON TO FOLLOW.

~ MEMOIRS OF MQS HALIM ONDORE IV

CHAPTER 13: THE PROVINCE OF ALLIES

* * *

"So you're telling me that you're a ninja?"

"The one and only."

"I don't believe you."

This conversation had been the topic of the day since Reks had woken up. Naruto had explained to the young boy how they had arrived in the desert. Reks was not happy with the shinobi for knocking him out, but he was grateful for Naruto preventing him from running into the treaty room to get himself murdered.

"Haven't you heard the stories of the blond warrior saving merchant caravans in the desert for the past few months?" Naruto pleaded.

"You are the 'Yellow Flash'?" Reks asked, full of doubt.

Naruto laughed again at the nickname given to him by the people he had saved. _'Who would have guessed I'd get the same moniker my father earned?'_ "One and the same."

"But you're just a kid like me," Reks complained.

"I… may have lied about my age a bit," Naruto explained. _'Or a lot.'_

Reks stared at the blond. The tales he had heard of the Yellow Flash spoke of a man who appeared in a split second, saved the caravan or travelers, and disappeared as quickly. The only thing people had been able to notice was his blond hair, supplying the name of "Yellow Flash." Some reports included notes that the man wore a long red coat with black trim.

"You sure match the descriptions that I've heard of the Yellow Flash," Reks agreed, "but I just can't see you being that dangerous. I mean the Yellow Flash has been taking out bandits and monsters, protecting caravans for years. There were even some reports of him taking out Elementals!"

"Are those the big balls of light larger than a person, cause that's what I took out that one time."

"An Entite?" Reks shouted. "You? You took out an Entite all by yourself? Now I definitely don't believe you!" He stood up and began walking away. "Which way is Rabanastre? I've gotta get away from a lunatic like you." Naruto waited a moment before calling out.

"Haven't got a clue."

Reks stopped in his tracks.

"What was that?" he asked shakily.

"No clue where Rabanastre is, Reks," Naruto answered as he walked slowly towards where the younger boy had stopped. "I don't know much about the geography of Ivalice, actually." Reks narrowed his eyes. "I mean I know we're in the country of Dalmasca, and I know where Rozarria and Archadia are, but I don't know about any cities or anything like that."

Reks sighed and began walking back to their camp. "Even if you are a lunatic, I can't just leave you out here with no idea where to go."

Naruto smiled as he followed. "And I'm sure your staying has nothing to do with the fact that you have no idea where we are."

Reks faulted for a moment. "I-it's not that. I just feel sorry for you."

"Uh huh."

* * *

"So why are we here, Naruto?"

"We're here cause you couldn't eat the meat from the monsters I captured without throwing it back up," Naruto explained. "I'm going to buy some food from anyone selling and I want you to ask how to get from Rabanastre from here."

"You have gil?" Reks asked.

"Yellow Flash, remember?" Naruto grinned. "I've been taking out bandits for years, saving up tons of cash."

"I still don't believe that, you know." Reks crossed his arms.

"Yeah whatever, just go ask around," Naruto waved the boy off. He could believe what he wanted. The two walked off in separate directions.

Wandering through the small encampment, Naruto came upon some vendors selling food and small wares. "We could grab some meat cutlets," he mumbled, "but we don't have any way to carry them with us. I suppose I could use sealing scrolls, but I've never been good with sealing away food. Maybe we should just grab some things to snack on while travelling."

"Hey weirdo in the orange dress!"

Naruto looked up from his musings to find several rough-looking men eyeing him dangerously. A few of them held daggers and one of them had hoisted a large club onto his shoulders in an effort to intimidate Naruto.

"It's actually a coat, if you don't mind," Naruto corrected. "Do you guys know where I could get some fruit, by any chance?"

One of the smaller men spoke up, "There's a nice little vendor just down the-"

"Quiet, ya buffoon!" the apparent leader shouted. "We're robbing him, not giving him directions!"

"Robbing me?" Naruto raised his eyebrows. "Now I don't think that would be a good idea, gentlemen. Especially not in the middle of this street here."

"The Boss runs this town anyway, idiot!" another of the ruffians proclaimed.

"No one in this place would stand up to me, punk," the 'boss' added.

"That's only because I've never been here," Naruto said.

One of the ruffians rushed toward him, baring a dagger. Naruto's eyes flashed for a moment before he spun backward quickly to his left, grabbing the dagger from the man's hand and tossing it to the side. Naruto smacked the man in the back of the head, sending him to the ground.

Two more of the thugs ran forward, one with a longer blade as the first man picked himself up and tried to punch the younger boy. Naruto moved his head aside as the punch passed through the now empty space. He grabbed the man's arm and swung his whole body over his own shoulder at the other two.

"Stop there, boy," the boss warned. Naruto turned to him as the other thugs attempted to detangle their bodies from each other in a heap. The boss of the thugs was holding a dagger to the neck of a nearby shopowner. "Think twice, boy. I told you no one in this town stands up to me." The shopowner, an elderly man with a face full of fear, looked to Naruto with pleading eyes.

"And I told you," Naruto began. A kunai stuck into the ruffian's back in an instant. The man's grip on his knife loosened and the blade fell to the dirt. The shopowner moved away as the large man fell. Another Naruto stepped out from an alleyway behind where the leader had been. "That was only because I have never been here." The second Naruto disappeared in a blast of smoke.

He turned to the leftover thugs. "Get outta here before you go down with him," he commanded. The remaining bandits did just that.

"Naruto!"

The man is question turned to the familiar voice to find Reks running towards him.

"What's going on?" the young man asked frantically. "I heard the market was being attacked by thugs." Reks noticed the large man lying face-down in the dirt.

"I was just going to rough them up a bit to get them to leave," Naruto explained. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "But this guy tried to hide behind one of the shopkeepers with a dagger."

"It's the Yellow Flash!"

By now, many of the shopkeepers and villagers had gathered around where the short fight had taken place. Many of them had watched Naruto take down the bandits with surprising ease, not to mention his speed and ability to create copies of himself.

"I… I guess you really are the Yellow Flash," Reks admitted. "But…the tower, the King, why-?"

"We'll talk about that later, Reks," Naruto said hastily.

One of the shopowners had walked up to the pair. "I heard you mumbling before those thugs stopped you, Yellow Flash. If it is meat or fruit you need, you may take whatever you wish from my store here."

"Thank you, sir," Naruto replied. He and Reks made their way to the man's shop and stocked up on fresh-cut meat and fruits. The owner even gave the boys some bags to carry their supplies with them.

The kind shopkeeper waved happily as the two young boys walked out of the town with their spoils on their backs. The keeper turned back into his store and stopped when he saw something strange sitting on the counter at the back of the shop.

"Gods… this is 30,000 gil!"

* * *

"You said we'd talk later," Reks said. Night had fallen over the Dalmasca Estersand. Naruto and Reks had travelled until the sun had set before setting up their camp to roast their newly-acquired beef cutlets. "Why were you hiding yourself in the Dalmascan army?"

"You already know I'm the Yellow Flash," Naruto explained as he chewed on some of his beef. "I travel around, beating up thugs like the ones back in that town and rescuing caravans from monsters when I find them."

"But what does that have to do with King Raminas' peace treaty?"

"Every few years I throw on some armor and enlist myself in the Dalmascan army to help fight against Archadia. Before I became the Yellow Flash, I used to live in Dalmasca."

"And that night, you saved me." Reks stared at Naruto.

Naruto simply nodded. His mind returned to what the Kyuubi had told him the night before. The Fates would want to claim Reks' life is at all possible. They would everything that Ivalice could manage at the two of them, to reclaim Reks and to keep Naruto from stopping their plans again. Naruto knew he could handle whatever monsters that Fate chose to send for them, but Reks was still a young boy. He could fight fairly well with a sword, and he knew some magic, but nothing that would be greatly effective against powerful foes.

"I almost forgot," Reks said.

"What's that?"

"When I was asking around the village, I heard news about Dalmasca."

Naruto looked up from across the fire. "What about it?"

"Captain Basch was labeled a traitor and put to death." Naruto frowned. "That's not all. Lady Ashe, the princess of Dalmasca, has… taken her own life in grief of her father and her country."

"Then Archadia has won."

"Or so it would seem," Reks corrected. "We both heard what happened in His Majesty's chambers that night. If we expose their lies-"

"Who would believe us, Reks?"

"There must be some who still fight against the Archadian forces!"

"Of course, but just going to Dalmasca and shouting in the streets isn't going to help anyone." Naruto closed his eyes in thought. "No, I don't think going to Dalmasca at all would be a good idea."

"But what about my brother?" Reks shouted. "He's still there, and he'll be stuck under the control of the Empire!"

"Do you want to help him or damn him?" Naruto shouted back. "You told me about Vaan on the way here! You said he was passionate! You said he would stand up for himself and his friends! Do you think Vaan will just cower and accept the Empire? Do you think he won't fight back?"

"Of course not! Vaan will fight!" Both of them had stood up, shouting at each other from just across the campfire. "Where will fighting get him, though? Nowhere better than shouting through the streets like you said."

"Do you want to help Vaan?" Naruto asked quietly. Reks nodded. "Get better. Train yourself to fight. Become a person who can protect your brother."

"And you're going to make me a fighter?"

"No." Naruto gave the younger boy a wicked smile. "I'm going to make you a ninja."

* * *

_Chapter 2 End_

_Here's chapter 2. I didn't get as much of the backstory as I was planning. It'll be included in the next two chapters._

_Thanks everyone for all the reviews and favorites. I'm glad people are enjoying this. I hope to get a chapter of either this or 'Darkness In Zero' up once per week._

_Big thanks as always to my friend BloodstainedComma for beta-reading this and fixing mistakes._


	3. Painful Memories

"Make me a ninja? Are you insane?"

"Yes, but that's not the point."

Reks just stared at his companion. "Okay okay." Reks held his hands up. "Even if I do believe that you _are_ the Yellow Flash, how exactly could you make me a ninja?"

"Simple," Naruto answered. "Training."

"You're telling me that all it takes to do the things you do is just some training?"

"No. All it takes to do the things I do is years and years of rigorous practice and life-threatening situations that reveal the potential that lies within you." Naruto smiled at his younger friend. "I can say with almost absolute certainty that you will never be as good as me. You might become stronger than me, you might be faster, you might even be smarter; perhaps, by some miracle, even all three." Naruto stood and bent over to stare Reks right in his face. "But you will _never_ be as good as me, Reks."

Reks remained unconvinced. "So what makes you so good then?"

A kunai rested itself against Reks' neck from behind. Startled, the young boy barely managed to turn his head to see another Naruto standing there holding the small knife. "I'm unpredictable," the clone answered.

Reks jumped away as the clone exploded in smoke. "H-h-how? T-two! Two of you!"

"I can do much more than that," Naruto explained and stood up straight. "When I was twelve, I could create over 1000 clones without breaking a sweat." Reks paled at this revelation. "I bet if I really wanted to, I could create tens, maybe hundreds of thousand of clones now."

"Then why not create all those clones and use them to win the war for Rabanastre?" Reks pleaded. "Those numbers would turn the favor to us easily."

"The first reason is that the clones disappear in one hit from just about anything." Naruto saw Reks calm down at that. "A punch, kick, even a small cut from a dagger would make them disappear." Reks slouched over in acceptance.

"The second reason is that it's not my place to fight someone else's war." Reks' head shot up. "Even if I could win the war for Rabanastre, I wouldn't do it."

"Why not?" Reks shouted. "You bastard! Didn't you say you used to live in Rabanastre? How could you turn your back on your home that easily?"

Naruto bit back a snappy reply. _'The Leaf Village hasn't existed for a long time. It's not his fault he doesn't know.'_ "Maybe someday I'll explain it to you, Reks," he finally said.

"What is there to explain, Naruto?" Reks glared at him, waiting for an answer.

Naruto struggled to find a proper answer. "It's… complicated."

Reks didn't back down. "Try me."

"It's very complicated."

"I swear if I knew how to get to Rabanastre from here, I would leave you," Reks grumbled.

"Tell you what, if you end up surviving shinobi training, I'll tell you everything. Every secret I have."

Reks was suddenly apprehensive. "What do you mean… 'survive?'"

"You didn't think it would be a walk in the park, did you?" Naruto smiled at his companion. "I have some fantastic ideas that could whip you into shape if you're good enough to not die from them."

Naruto looked at Reks with a determined eye. "I know you're decent with a sword, but I don't know much about what you can do," he mused.

"I was the fastest sprinter out of our group in Lowtown," Reks answered as the two sat back down in their camp. "And I can use some magic, only really low level stuff, though."

"That's actually pretty impressive," Naruto admitted. "I was never able to get a hold on using magic, you know. It's just too different from what I do. I've been doing it my way for so long that I just can't change it."

"How is it 'different' from what you do?" Reks questioned. "I thought you just used magic for everything."

"Nope, I use ninjutsu." Reks looked confused. "I suppose I'd better explain this to you." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small notebook. After flipping to a certain page with some drawings, Naruto handed the notebook to Reks.

"The energy that allows me to use ninjutsu is called chakra," he began. "Chakra is a combination of spiritual energy and physical energy." Naruto pointed to a diagram on the page showing the sources of the energies in the human body. "Each energy needs to be balanced perfectly or the jutsu can backfire horribly.

"You may not know this, but what you call magic uses pure spiritual energy. That's why it's so easy for you and others to control; there's no balance. On the other hand, I learned from a very young age to combine spiritual and physical energies together, and it's pure habit for me now. Using only spiritual energy is damn near impossible for me.

"Ninjutsu is a general term for just about any technique that can be used with chakra. Almost all ninjutsu can be divided into two categories: shape manipulation and elemental manipulation." Naruto held out his hand and formed a small ball of spinning blue energy and used his other hand to point to the notebook which showed . "This is called a Rasengan. This jutsu was created by my father. It's been called the pinnacle of shape manipulation. It's pure chakra, forced into a physical shape; it's constantly spinning so it can tear through anything, even steel." He let the Rasengan dissipate.

"Elemental manipulation is exactly what it sounds like: using ninjutsu to attack or defend with one of the five basic ninjutsu elements. The ninjutsu elements are fire, wind, lightning, earth, and water. Each element has the advantage over the next and is weak to the previous one, so fire beats wind, wind beats lightning, lightning beats earth, and so on. Of course, a high level lightning ninjutsu can defeat a lower level wind jutsu.

"Any questions so far?" Naruto asked.

"I think I've got it for now," Reks said, impressed by how seriously Naruto was speaking. "Those clones you can make, those are ninjutsu, right?"

"It's called the Shadow Clone Jutsu. It creates physical copies of me using chakra. There are variants, usually involving some kind of element as a medium to make the jutsu easier. It splits the chakra evenly across the number of clones I create, so the more clones I make the less power they have."

"So that's why creating thousand and rushing them into an army wouldn't do anything," Reks said.

"That's right. Although to be perfectly honest each of my clones could probably take down three or four armored soldiers, but that's neither here nor there."

Naruto lifted his hand and turned the page in the small notebook so he could continue the lesson. "Besides ninjutsu, shinobi techniques are also separated into taijutsu and genjutsu. Taijutsu is the general term for physical combat. Genjutsu is the use of illusions, and I'm not talking about that smoke and mirrors bullshit; I mean mind-bending creations that affect all five senses and any sixth sense a warrior might have." He pointed to several sketches on the pages, showing fighting stances and complex calculations.

"Taijutsu will be easy enough to teach you," Naruto continued. "I've mastered dozens of styles, and you've got a good build to learn quite a number of them if you train long enough." Reks looked hopeful. "Genjutsu, on the other hand, I have absolutely no talent with." The younger boy's face fell, just as Naruto had expected it to. "I have no way of teaching you how to create genjutsu, and I doubt anyone else in Ivalice has the capability so there's no point in teaching you what little I know about dispelling them."

Reks lowered his head, dejected. "You'll have plenty to learn regardless, Reks." Naruto placed a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "We need to get your physical conditioning up to snuff, though. And the sooner we start working on combining your spiritual and physical energies into chakra, the better."

* * *

As Naruto had expected, Reks was unable to draw upon his chakra right away. Considering it usually took children in the Ninja Academy several years to control their chakra, it was no surprise. After a week of trying, Reks had improved his magic casting, but had made no progress otherwise. The physical training wasn't going very well either. Reks was skinny, fit for a speedy build with little stamina.

'_A lot like Kakashi-sensei,'_ Naruto mused as he watched the boy train. _'I have some chakra paper left, but we won't be able to tell Reks' affinity until he learns to control his chakra.'_

Currently, Reks was sparring with a dozen of Naruto's shadow clones just outside of their camp area. Reks was becoming rather adept at fighting the clones since he knew they dispelled after a single hit. On the other hand, Reks never escaped from the sparring sessions unscathed. He sported a number of scars and bruises over his entire body, evidence of his rigorous training.

For the past week, their schedule had been mostly physical training. Naruto knew that exhaustion would help Reks in drawing out any latent energy, and he fully expected Reks to be able to feel his chakra within the month. They only spent a few hours every night on the task; Naruto could only handle so much meditation in one sitting, even after 1000 years of life.

Naruto heard a chorus of popping noises and noticed Reks walking back to the camp; all of the clones had been dispelled. The boy sat down, breathing heavily. "The clones are starting to go easy on me, Naruto," he gasped between breaths.

"Looks like they're still giving you a good run to me, Reks." Naruto smiled at the boy. "I'm glad you're pushing yourself, but you just started your conditioning a week ago. You went from fighting one clone to fighting a dozen in a really short time. Take the rest of the day off."

Reks snapped his head up to look at Naruto. "You were the one that said the faster I learn all this, the better!"

"And that's true! But pushing yourself to the brink of passing out every day is going to hurt more than it'll help. You're not giving your muscles time to rest." Reks looked doubtful. "Resting is part of training, too." Naruto examined his new student. "From now on, I'd like you to rest half a day every week. Normally I'd say a full day, but you're not tearing your muscles apart every day."

"You say that like you knew someone who did," Reks observed.

"I did. As a matter of fact, the guy I knew ruptured most of the muscles in his body once and had his arm and leg basically crushed when he was twelve years old." Reks looked amazed. "The greatest healer in the world fixed him up and he was good as new within a month." Amazement evolved into full blown disbelief. "Yeah, Granny Tsunade was the best."

Reks was about to question more but he quickly noticed the pained expression on Naruto's face. "You said all your friends and family died," he muttered.

There was a long silence. Reks could hear wolves scavenging out of the desert wastes nearby. "My parents died shortly after I was born," Naruto finally explained. He ignored the deep rumble of the Nine-Tailed Fox in his subconscious. "I grew up in an orphanage. I was hated by nearly everyone that knew me for something that I didn't even know about and had no control over." Naruto had lowered his head, preventing Reks from seeing his face.

The blond suddenly stood up. "Meditate for the rest of the day," he ordered. "Don't travel far from camp, and don't do any more physical training." He began walking away.

Reks called after his teacher, "Where are you going?"

"To let off some steam."

* * *

Punch. Kick. Dodge. Kunai. Block. Rasengan. Punch. Dodge. Punch. Ki-

"Ow!"

"Sorry boss."

"You little bastards and your tricks," Naruto muttered.

He was standing in the middle of a group of several thousand clones. Many of the clones held a Rasengan in one or both of their hands; others held kunai or shuriken. This had been going on for several hours since his half-explanation to Reks. Thinking about his friends… was painful. It was more painful than anything else for Naruto.

Immortality had proved more painful than dying. Watching every person that you ever knew die while you stayed alive at the ripe age of 17 for eternity could do that. Naruto had told himself it wasn't so bad when they were still alive.

Sakura had lived for over 100 years, her lifespan boosted by the Strength of a Hundred seal given to her by Tsunade. Gaara had lived to the age of 98, helped by the chakra from the One-Tailed Tanuki Shukaku, despite the beast being removed from his body at a young age. Killer Bee lived longer than ever Sakura because of the Eight-Tailed Ox.

Hinata… The love of his life, Hinata Hyuuga, had died at the age of 85. They had been married for 65 years when she died. They had 3 children, Hiruzen, Minato, and Kushina. Kushina had become Hokage after Naruto stepped down. An immortal Hokage sounded promising to the village, but Naruto didn't want to preside over the Leaf forever.

Not long after Kushina's death, Naruto left the village to travel the lands. He believed there was nothing left in the Leaf Village for him, as all of his friends and family had now passed on. Naruto knew not when the Elemental Nations had transformed into the land of Ivalice. He reappeared in what had been the Leaf Village many years later to find the royal city of Rabanastre. The Land of Lightning had become the Archadian Empire. And the Land of Wind had become the nation of Rozarria.

The Dynast King Raithwall had ruled the land for many years but after his death the continent split into the three kingdoms that now existed. Naruto held little love for any of the kingdoms; he only fought for Dalmasca because the nation had previously been the Land of Fire.

"**Naruto."**

Naruto and all of his clones stopped instantly. A loud noise rose from the desert as the remaining clones dispelled. "What's up, Kurama?"

"**I've been examining the chakra- or magic or whatever you stupid humans use now- in the air."**

"Did you figure out why I can't use Sage Mode?"

"**Something in the chakra all over this region is messing with the Natural Energy required for Sage Mode. Like there's something else there; I don't know what it is, but it's everywhere."**

"Everywhere?" Naruto echoed.

"**Everywhere."** The fox grumbled under its breath. **"For the past few centuries I haven't been able to sense anything but whatever this is in the air. Until now I thought it was just a change in the natural chakra. But now I know for a fact that it's something else."**

"How do you know it's different?"

"**I know what chakra feels like, brat. Just remember, I'm older than you."**

* * *

_Chapter 3 End_

_Heylo everyone. This update is going up a bit late for the simple reason that I forgot over the weekend. I've been working on chapter 5 for the past few nights, and my sleeping schedule is way out of whack right now. Thanks for being patient._


	4. A New Kind of Summoning

A month had passed since Naruto's last discussion with Kurama. The fox told Naruto that he would be quiet for a while, focusing intently on the source of the energy that was disrupting Sage Mode. Kurama had not spoken since then, but Naruto trusted his partner to call him if something came up.

In the meantime, Reks had continued his training. His stamina had improved greatly; he was now fighting two dozen clones at once while taking very few hits. Naruto had started Reks on training with kunai as well, since the boy had showed prowess with daggers. The smaller weapons would benefit him at higher speeds.

All of Reks' other training paled in comparison to the night that he had finally accessed his chakra. The boy had been ecstatic when the powerful warmth had spread over his entire body. Naruto had quickly started Reks on studying the easiest of ninjutsu; Naruto had called them the "academy three."

Reks had already accomplished the Transformation Jutsu, which Naruto had expected. According to him, it was the easiest of the three to learn. The Clone Jutsu required creating a copy of oneself, which was difficult to accomplish even if the clone had no physical body. The Replacement Jutsu was currently proving rather difficult to master, as it required switching oneself with the position of some item nearby, typically a rock or log.

"Hey Reks, come over here for a moment."

A plume of smoke rose from a seemingly normal cactus to show Reks standing in its place. "What do you need?"

Naruto pulled out two small slips of paper from his coat pocket. "I wanted to wait until you had a decent control over your chakra before doing this," he explained. "This paper is made from a tree specially treated with chakra; it's incredibly rare nowadays, as you might imagine."

"So what does it do?" Reks asked as he sat down in their camp.

"It shows which of the elemental natures a person has an affinity for. All you have to do is focus a bit of your chakra into the paper and it responds accordingly." Naruto held one of the papers between two fingers and focused a small amount of chakra into it. After a moment the paper split in two, each half floating lazily to the ground. "The paper splitting in two means I have wind-natured chakra, which I already knew." He handed the second sheet to his student.

"Just focus chakra into it?" he asked. Naruto nodded his head and smiled. Reks nodded back and attempted to focus his chakra into the paper. He hadn't practiced much with focusing chakra into specific parts of his body yet, but the paper seemed to absorb what little he could build right away.

An instant later, the paper had wrinkled between his fingers. The ripples in the paper spread out from the center to to the edges. "Lightning." Reks looked up. "Your chakra is lightning-natured," Naruto explained.

Reks thought back to what Naruto had told him a month ago about the five chakra natures. "Lightning chakra is strong against earth, right?"

"Correct. It's also weak to wind nature. That's pretty good; it means you'll get a lot of practice against the element you're weak against. It'll help improve the strength of your jutsu."

'_Thin, speedy, lightning-natured… It's like Kakashi-sensei all over again,'_ Naruto mused. _'He's even got the silver hair for it.'_ "I don't actually know that many lightning jutsu, but I do have scrolls that will help you learn some low-level ones." _'Now that I think about it, Reks has never seen me use the Summoning Jutsu. This should be interesting.'_

"Wanna see something really cool, Reks?" The boy nodded curiously. Naruto responded by biting his thumb to draw blood and performing some hand signs. He slammed his palm down flat on the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!"

A large cloud of smoke appeared, causing Reks to start coughing loudly. The smoke slowly dispersed, revealing a toad that stood knee-high. The toad had orange skin and wore a small, deep blue yukata. **"How's it goin' boss!"** the toad spoke.

Reks yelped and backed away from the small creature. "It talked!"

"**Of course I can talk, ya numpty."** The toad had a high-pitched voice, showing he was rather young.

"Hey, Gamariki," Naruto greeted the small summon. "This is Reks. He's my new student."

Gamariki looked over at Reks curiously. **"Student? You haven't trained anyone in ages, boss."**

"Yeah, he doesn't know about all that yet, Gamariki."

"I've heard of summons," Reks muttered as he approached the toad, "but I've never heard of any that can speak like that."

This surprised Naruto. "There are people that can summon in Ivalice?" _'Maybe some of the shinobi aren't dead.'_

"Yeah, but not like that, Naruto," Reks answered. "That was ninjutsu, right?" His teacher nodded in the affirmative. "The only summoning I've ever heard of was just magic, no ninjutsu."

"Ah, that would explain it then." He shook his head. "Anyway, Gamariki, do you have those elemental scrolls I gave you all a few years back?"

"**I can pop back and grab them real quick, boss."** Naruto nodded. **"Back in a flash!"** Another plume of smoke and the toad had disappeared.

"I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to ninjas," Reks muttered.

"It's better if you don't, to be honest. Getting complacent just means you're an easier target." Reks just nodded.

Another explosion of smoke signaled Gamariki's return. He was holding a scroll under his arm. **"Got it right here, boss!"**

"Good work, Gamariki." He pulled out a small bag from his pocket. "Here's your usual pay." He handed the small bag over as he took the scroll. "Tell Gamakichi and the others I said hey."

"**Gotcha!"** And once more the toad was gone.

"What did you pay him with?" Reks asked.

"Candy. All the toad children love candy."

"There are others?"

"Of course, there's hundreds, maybe even thousands at this point." Naruto unrolled the scroll on the ground to get a look at it. "Though I only ever summon the main family unless it's a specific situation. Gamariki is the son of Gamakichi, who is the current Boss Toad and son of Gamabunta who was Boss Toad when I was younger."

"So they change bosses every few years?"

Naruto shrugged. "Something like that." He rolled up the scroll and handed it to Reks. "This scroll should help you learn some low-level lightning jutsu to get you used to elemental manipulation." Reks unrolled it and looked at the first few illustrations. "Typically it takes a long time before a ninja would practice with elements, but you've been using magic for a while already."

"And magic is much more in tune with the elements, right?"

Naruto smirked and nodded. "Yeah, that'll help you along with your elemental training." Naruto paused for a moment. "Elemental training will also improve your overall control of your chakra; it'll make your jutsu easier to use. It helps you waste less of your chakra."

Reks rolled the scroll back up and tucked it away.

* * *

_Later that night…_

"**So what are you saying, Naruto-boy?"**

"There's some kind of strange chakra or magic in the air that's messing with my Sage Mode."

Naruto had travelled away from camp so that Reks couldn't overhear his current conversation.

"**And Kurama told you this?"**

Naruto sighed. "I know you don't trust him, Pa, but I do."

"**Fair enough."**

Sitting across from where Naruto was standing was a short toad, even shorter than Gamariki. This toad was clearly elderly, sporting white hair on his goatee and large eyebrows. Fukasaku was part of the duo at the head of Mt. Myouboku, the place where the toad summon clan lived. Fukasaku had been the one to teach Naruto to use Sage Mode 1000 years ago.

"Do you know any way to get around it?" Naruto asked.

"**How does this strange chakra affect Sage Mode?"**

"After I gather the natural energy in, Sage Mode activates but it disappears after a few seconds."

"**Hmmmm…"** Fukusaku closed his eyes and focused. **"You're right, the natural energy in the air is very strange."** A few seconds passed as Fukasaku spread his senses. **"It's like… the chakra in the air is saturated with spiritual energy."**

Naruto snapped his head up. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"

"**What is it, boy?"**

"This world doesn't use chakra anymore, Pa," Naruto explained. "They use magic, which is comprised entirely of their spiritual energy. After hundreds of years of magic users, the natural chakra in the air was tainted and turned into something else; something foreign to us."

"**So this 'magic' is the cause then."** Fukasaku shut his eyes and focused once more. **"There seems to be some concentration of natural energy to the southwest of here, Naruto-boy. I can sense this strange… 'magic' as well, but there is definitely pure natural energy."**

"I still don't know much of the geography in Ivalice, so I don't know what's there."

"**That boy travelling with you ought to know, eh?"**

"If it's not far from Rabanastre, he would probably know, yeah." Naruto tapped his chin in thought for a moment. "Yeah, I'll ask him about it, see if he knows much about the area."

"**You should summon us more often, Naruto-boy,"** Fukasaku chided. **"Ma hasn't seen you in decades."** Naruto smiled as the elderly toad dismissed himself.

* * *

"Where did you run off to last night, Naruto?"

"Do you think I would do my training in plain sight, Reks?" Naruto laughed. "I have to head out further into the desert just so I don't wake you up."

"Do you really make that much noise?"

"Haha, Reks, you have no idea. When I was younger they called me the '#1 Most Unpredictable Ninja.' Do you really think I'd have a name like that for no reason?"

"I suppose not."

"Nicely done on noticing that I had left the camp, though." Naruto clapped the younger boy on the back as they walked. "I even left behind a clone to try and fool you, but you still saw through it."

"You told me to 'look underneath the underneath,' right? 'Awareness can be a shinobi's greatest asset.' That's what you've been teaching me."

"That's right. I've been thinking about that, too. I don't know anything about Ivalice. I said before, I know where the 3 big nations are, and I know we're in the Estersand cause of that merchant we passed by a few weeks ago, but other than that I haven't a clue where we are."

Reks looked over at his teacher. "I could teach you a bit about the geography. I don't know everything, obviously, but I'll be able to help you with the main places around Rabanastre."

"I know about the Estersand and the Westersand," Naruto explained. "I know about the desert past the Westersand, too."

Reks was suddenly curious; Naruto rarely spoke of his past, even vaguely. "Have you ever been to Rozarria?"

"Technically, yes."

"Technically?"

"Remember what I told you? Finish your training and I'll tell you everything."

"But you also taught me a shinobi's training is never done," Reks complained.

"That's true, but I just meant waiting until you've got a real handle on your chakra so you can easily perform jutsu in actual combat. And not just the academy three."

"I read over that scroll last night, but a lot of it was just over my head." Naruto ruffled the boy's hair.

"Aww, don't worry, Reks. We'll have you in fighting shape in no time!"

* * *

_Chapter 4 End_

_More set up here. Next chapter will definitely have some interesting developments, and after that we start getting into the meat of the story. Thanks to everyone who's been reading, and I apologize for the somewhat boring chapter. See you guys next weekend!_


	5. The Fallen Capital

In the following weeks, Reks took time during meals and when it was too dark to train in order to teach Naruto what little he knew about the areas surrounding the city of Rabanastre. The Estersand and Westersand were easily explained, especially considering Naruto knew quite a bit from traversing the wastelands for several (hundred) years.

To the north was the land of Nabradia, recently conquered by the Archadian Empire. Rumors had stirred shortly thereafter that the capital, Nabudis, had been entirely abandoned and left to the wild beasts of the area.

To the south were the Giza Plains, home to wandering nomads. Reks explained that the Plains had two seasons, dry and rainy, that cycled every few months. The nomads settled during the dry, living off the cockatrice and weaker beasts that thrived there.

"The Giza Plains are an entirely different place during the rains," Reks had said. "The rain is so powerful that the landscape changes. The nomads are forced to retreat into the mountains during the rain to avoid their homes being washed away. But the biggest change are the monsters that appear during the rain. The hyenas and cockatrices hide away while elementals and giant toads and tortoises roam."

Of course, Naruto had already taken down an Entite, and had nothing to fear from any toad (except perhaps Gamabunta) or tortoise. Still, Reks convinced Naruto to avoid the area during the rain, if only because Naruto figured he would find more clues to his Sage Mode problem during the dry season.

While information on the Giza Plains had been Naruto's main desire in asking Reks to teach him about the surrounding lands, he realized that he did need to learn more about Ivalice in general. Several hundred years of roaming the desertlands without knowing a thing about any of the bordering lands was pathetic in Naruto's mind. He had even told Reks that awareness could be a shinobi's greatest asset and yet he was blindly unaware of what had been stirring in Archadia.

Immortality had made Naruto complacent. Being unable to die had dulled his senses, preventing him from caring about the world outside of himself. Something about Reks tugged at Naruto, made him empathize with the boy. Perhaps it was the loss of his family, albeit through entirely different circumstances (though Reks was not yet aware of that).

Reks' own training had progressed smoothly enough. Naruto now had him practicing against the local wildlife along with Shadow Clones. He had learned to predict the patterns that the clones would take, but the wild beasts were a new wild card for the boy. Even then, it didn't take long before Reks was bringing wolf meat and pelts back to the camp. The meat was nice to have, what with being stuck in the desert and the pelts fetched a nice price whenever they stopped if the few towns scattered across the wasteland.

Reks had also mastered the academy three and had quickly jumped into working on his elemental composition. Usually nature transformation took many years for a shinobi to learn, but Reks already had a good grasp on how to use magic. In fact, one of the spells that Reks already knew was Thunder, so that put him even closer to Lightning jutsu according to Naruto. While chakra and magic worked very different, the method for turning the energy into electrical power remained very similar… as far as Naruto could tell from the little that Reks could tell him about magic.

Magic in general was still a very distant subject for Naruto. Being unable to use it, he cast it aside, preferring to stick with the chakra techniques he had been taught since birth. Reks knew very little about it, and the few elders Naruto had spoken to in the desert villages could not explain very much either. As far as most people knew, magic just… happened.

Unfortunately for Naruto, one of these village elders had told Naruto that the Giza Plains were currently enduring a record-setting rainy season. This prevented Naruto from travelling there to investigate Fukusaku's claim about the natural energy that had accumulated there.

The desert sands remained very dry, however, and the heat pounded on their backs all day long. It had been several months since the assassination of King Raminas and Reks was beginning to tire of being constantly surrounded by sand and heat. He suggested travelling north to the deserted land of Nabradia since the beasts of the Estersand were no longer providing any challenge.

"It'll be much better than sitting out in this sunlight all day, Naruto," Reks reasoned. "Do you have any idea how bad sunlight can be for your skin?"

Naruto shot the boy a deadpan look before sighing. "I suppose a change of scenery wouldn't be too bad." _'There's no telling when Giza Plains will return to the dry season. It'll be good to get Reks fighting some different enemies. Maybe some enemies that use elemental attacks...'_

"Let's stock up on food when we get near the border," Reks suggested as they started packing up camp. "We have no idea what kind of monsters have moved in since Nabradia was deserted."

Naruto was honestly surprised. Even he hadn't thought of that. "Good thinking, Reks."

* * *

So far the country of Nabradia had been exactly as Reks had described it: deserted. The Mosphoran Highwaste, known as the entrance to the land of Nabradia, was devoid of any signs of life. Reks had heard tales that visitors were not so uncommon in the Highwaste; despite the strong monsters that roamed the hills it contained rich minerals useful in the development of cities and nations.

Not even the monsters known to roam the Highwaste impeded Naruto and Reks as they journeyed through the area. Even the plantlife seemed to be attempting to hide itself as if it were terrified to even be seen.

"I had heard rumors about the destruction of Nabudis," Reks muttered, "but I had no idea it was this widespread."

"What exactly happened here?" Naruto asked.

"I don't really know. There was never a public report released. Just one day we got news that Nabudis had literally been blown off the map."

Naruto's eyes widened. _'Can magic really be that destructive?'_

Without any guides to ask for directions, the two ninja were left to their own devices on how to reach the capital. Many of the pathways seemed treacherous on foot, but Naruto simply scoffed at Reks' concern and walked directly up the side of a nearby cliff.

"How-"

Naruto looked back down and slapped his forehead. He had forgotten to teach Reks anything about wall-climbing or water-walking. "I'm using chakra to stick the bottom of my feet to the rock face," Naruto answered. He jumped back down and landed deftly in front of his student. "I actually meant to teach you, but I kind of forgot. There aren't a lot of cliffs to practice on as far out in the desert as we were."

The pair spent a few hours working on chakra climbing before setting up camp. Darkness came sooner in the mountains than it had in the low-lying desert. It turned out Reks had been very smart to suggest stocking up on food since the local beasts were nowhere to be found.

The next morning, Naruto awoke to find Reks standing sideways on the cliff face above him and grinned at the boy. It truly surprised him how quickly the younger boy was learning. _'It may not have taken more than a day for me to learn chakra climbing,'_ Naruto mused, _'but I had been using chakra for years by then. Reks has only been at it for a few months. He might actually surpass me for the most unpredictable ninja soon…_

'_Okay, maybe not. But his pace is pretty remarkable, especially by my standards.'_

After traversing the hills of the Highwaste, Naruto and Reks discovered a path that led into a thick forest.

"**Naruto."**

Naruto stopped in his tracks at the sounds of the Kyuubi's voice echoing in his subconscious. Reks quickly noticed and stopped as well, wondering what was holding his teacher back. _'What is it, Kurama?'_

"**The woods here are saturated with a wicked magic. It's unlike anything I've felt since we returned to this land."** Even though Naruto was on good terms with the beast sealed inside him, it was rare for the Nine Tails to warn him of anything, especially after all his years.

'_So what are you telling me?'_

"Naruto, what's the hold up?" Reks wondered.

"Just a moment, Reks."

"**I would recommend against trying Sage Mode here. The forest is usually a good place to gather natural energy, but this place is giving me a bad vibe."**

'_No Sage Mode, got it. Not like I could use it for the past few years anyway.'_

"Naruto?"

"Sorry Reks, let's get going."

"Wait, what was that?" Reks persisted. "I've never seen you just stop like that before."

Naruto sighed. "I was talking with the nine-tailed fox demon that has been sealed in my stomach since birth 'cause the forest freaked him out a bit."

"**Oi."**

Reks paused.

"No really, Naruto, what was that?"

Naruto just laughed. "Remember what I told you, Reks?"

"When my training is over, right." Reks looked away, once again denied an explanation for his teacher's odd behavior.

* * *

The Salikawood hosted a fair few creatures within its trees, more than the desolate Mosphoran Highwaste, anyway. Just as the Kyuubi had said, the forest was rich with magic. The few beasts that attempted to attack the two travellers were quickly subdued by Naruto once he noticed they were moving a bit too fast for Reks to catch. Once he caught them however, Reks was able to take them down rather easily.

It was while defeating one of these creatures that Reks noticed how the surrounding area was affecting his magic. Reks didn't use magic very often anymore, wanting to focus on learning the shinobi crafts that Naruto had been teaching him. He still found use in them however, since his only other option was physical attacks.

"Naruto, the forest is replenishing my magic power very quickly after I use it," Reks noted.

Not exactly literate on the workings of magic, Naruto was confused. "What do you mean by 'magic power?'"

"Um, well I don't know very much," Reks admitted. "I do not know that magic can't be cast indefinitely. Everyone has a certain amount of power than they use to cast spells before they run out. Once it runs out, no more magic."

"Hmm, something similar can happen with chakra," Naruto explained. "Except if you run completely out of chakra, you die." Reks looked shocked by this. "It's usually really easy to tell if you're running out; just don't use any more once you get to that point as nothing bad should happen."

"Anyway," Reks continued, "that magic power usually returns steadily over time after you use it. I've heard you mumbling once or twice about the concentration of magic in the air." Naruto arched an eyebrow at the boy. "Awareness, Naruto." The shinobi just smirked at his student. "Like I said, mana usually returns at a pretty slow pace, but I can feel it refill almost immediately here in this forest."

"So what could cause something like that?"

"It probably has something to do with the lack of monsters here and back in the Mosphoran Highwaste."

"And that probably came from whatever destroyed the capital city," Naruto guessed.

"That's what I was thinking."

"Well it's not really affecting my chakra from what I can tell, and your magic comes back faster, so I say we roll with it."

Reks held an arm out to signal for Naruto to stop. "Hold on a second, I want to try something."

He brought his hands up to form seals and then conjured a group of regular clones. By now, Reks could recognize the drain of chakra that the technique required, but he quickly felt that energy refill as well, though he did notice the process was slower than it had been with magic.

"It seems like my chakra returns super quick, too," Reks explained.

"Really?" Naruto had never heard of anything like that. Sure, he remember soldier pills having a similar effect, but those _forced_ the body to create more chakra, and using too many of them back-to-back could cause chakra poisoning and even kill a person. "Ivalice is just full of surprises, huh?"

The two shinobi made their way through the Salikawood without much trouble. Naruto had even let Reks handle a few of the monsters on his own. He struggled with them quite a bit, but eventually prevailed. Reks knew that Naruto would have stepped in if things had gotten to rough, so he pushed himself to the max on each encounter. The fact that his mana and chakra refilled insanely fast after each fight helped with that choice as well.

As they exited into the area near the capital, Naruto could start to feel a sinking feeling in the pit of his gut. He had chalked it up to the strange magic in the air, since Reks didn't feel right about it either. The thick fog in the air wasn't helping either one feel better, but they could see well enough to walk and no monsters appeared before them or made any noise in the nearby area.

The capital was just as barren as the Highwaste had been, which unnerved Naruto greatly. Reks was simply disappointed that he didn't get to fight any more monsters.

Upon reaching the entrance to the main fortress, the sinking feeling that Naruto had became much worse when the fog thickened to what reminded Naruto of his first run in with Zabuza in the Land of Waves. He reached out to grab Reks in order to turn them around and leave, but words stuck in his throat when he saw a high-powered energy blast heading for the two of them.

The entrance to the capital city was entirely obliterated as Naruto reappeared some distance away. Looking around, he could see a faint glow permeating the dense fog surrounding him. He could neither hear nor see any sign of Reks.

'_I really hope Reks is alright, but I have to take this thing down fast. The magic in the air probably affects it, too.'_

Naruto dodged another massive blast from the monster before creating a huge Rasengan in his right hand. He dashed forward, hoping to interrupt the thing before it could fire off another of those dark blasts. As he closed in, Naruto he see better through the fog before finally noticing that his opponent was a pitch-black entite, floating just inches off the ground but taller than Naruto.

"Eat this you overgrown chakra reject! Supermassive Rasengan!"

The enormous ball of energy slammed into the entite, grinding to a halt instead of bursting through it as Naruto had expected. The entite was about the same size as the Rasengan, but Naruto could push against his energy to give it more power, whereas the entite was just enduring with its own might.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock as his Rasengan began shrinking, the energy being sucked into the entite and making it even stronger. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Naruto groaned. "If only I could use Sage Mode."

"**Naruto, use my power!"**

While Naruto wasn't exactly happy with that idea, he had to do something fast. "Alright, Kurama, let's go!"

The cloak of power fell over him in an instant and he could feel his fingernails lengthening into sharp claws while his teeth morphed into deadly fangs. His hair became even wilder than before as it whipped around in the wind caused by the influx of chakra. A massive cloak of red chakra veiled Naruto, sprouting three tails behind him.

"**That's plenty, now let's wreck this thing!"** Naruto shouted. He quickly formed a Rasengan in each hand, combining the technique with the Nine Tails' chakra to empower them. Each orb hovered just above the cloak of chakra covering his hands.

"**One more time, you ugly sack of shit! Double Nine-Tailed Rasengan!"** The massive power from the two spheres tore through the entite with ease, dispersing the magic that formed it into the air.

The technique faded from Naruto's grasp and the cloak of energy receded, leaving him feeling more drained than he should have felt. He supposed the emptiness had doubled because of Reks' death. It had been the boy's idea to travel up here, to get some more intense training, and Naruto had let him. Naruto had felt how wrong the capital was as soon as they had left the forest. Kurama had even warned him about the thick magic in the air, but they just kept walking, moving right until to a young boy's death.

Naruto thought back to what the Nine-Tailed Fox had told him months ago. _'I guess Fate really did catch up to-'_

"Uh… hey Naruto."

Naruto jumped up from the spot on the ground he had been punching in anguish. Standing there, looking no worse than he had five minutes ago, was Reks. Naruto looked back to the caved-in entrance to Nabudis. "But, the blast-"

"Ninja," Reks explained with a smirk.

* * *

_Chapter 5 End_

_YES, there is a reason Naruto does not use the 'Jinchuuriki Mode' he acquired while training with Killer Bee. No, I will not tell you just yet. The reason is pretty easy to figure out and will be revealed in the next chapter regardless._

_I hope I did some justice to the Nabreus Deadlands. I barely ever set foot in them in Final Fantasy XII, and I have never ventured anywhere near the Nocrohol of Nabudis._

_After next chapter, I should start getting into the real meat of this story. I know I said that before, but I felt like extending the training longer than I should have._


	6. The Tale of Naruto Uzumaki

After the fiasco of trying to enter the capital city of Nabudis, Naruto and Reks chose to remain far away from the area in the foreseeable future. Whatever catastrophe had stricken all natural life from the area and had left behind wondering masses of malevolent magical energy, evident by the dark entite that had attacked the two shinobi.

Reks took pride in the fact that he could claim that title. Naruto had been shocked to find the boy alive after the entite's onslaught. Reks would claim for years later that the look on his teacher's face when he revealed that he had escaped through a simple Substitution Jutsu was priceless.

Of course, with Naruto bestowing the title of full-fledged shinobi upon his charge, Reks reminded him of his promise to reveal all of the secrets that had confused Reks for months. As it had already been nearing nightfall by the time the duo had attempted their foray into Nabudis, they elected to make camp in the Mosphoran Highwaste, to which they returned quickly.

"First things first," Naruto began as they sat before the small campfire. "I'd prefer to do this without interruptions." He looked Reks square in the eyes. "It's a long story, so it'd be best to save any questions until after." Reks nodded, truly curious as to his friend and teacher's past.

"I guess the best way to start things is at the beginning. I come from a place known as the Village Hidden in the Leaves. There were five great ninja villages at the time, and the Leaf Village was the biggest of them all. The strongest ninja in the entire village was known as the Hokage. I was born to the Fourth Hokage, and that's where everything went downhill…"

* * *

_Several hours later…_

"So after I managed to defeat Pein, he revived everyone in the village with the last of his energy. He passed on his will just like Master Jiraiya had. They named me next in line to be Hokage, but I refused to take the hat while Granny was still breathing. She eventually woke up from the coma and after a while I took over. That was when I noticed something strange."

Naruto looked tired and worn out by now, more so than Reks had ever seen the man. It was almost like the next part of the story were tearing at his very life force. He had been staring blankly into the campfire for the better part of the tale.

"Everyone around me was getting older, but I stayed the same." Reks gasped. "I never aged past seventeen." Tears were beginning to well up in the blond's eyes now. "They told me it was a combination of the insanely-strong life force that came from being an Uzumaki, the chakra from the Nine-Tails, and the connection with natural energy I had through Sage training.

"It sounds crazy, doesn't it?" Naruto finally looked up at Reks; tears were falling freely from the pristine blue eyes. The younger boy could only nod dumbly. "I know, I didn't believe it either at first. 'Surely I'm just aging gracefully' I told myself. I couldn't say that anymore when all of my friends had turned sixty years old with greying hair and arthritis while I still held the form of a perfectly fit seventeen year-old in his prime.

"Most of them didn't mind. My wife, Hinata… she said it was better this way. She-" Naruto choked up, recalling his wife's words. "She said she would always be able to see me the way she fell in love with me, young and strong." Reks waited for Naruto to continue; the next words seemed extremely painful.

"She died at 85."

Reks looked down with a sullen face. "I told you that some didn't care about the fact that I didn't age… Some did care, and they hated me for it. Hinata's cousin Neji had lost his best friend at a young age. Rock Lee was the greatest taijutsu expert in the entire village, except maybe his sensei. Lee and his sensei both loved what they called the 'Springtime of Youth.'" Naruto gave a short, hollow laugh. "They never shut up about it, actually. But Lee's youth ran out early. He died from underdeveloped and overworked chakra coils in his twenties. Neji resented me for staying so young when Lee would never have the gift of growing old."

Naruto sighed heavily and pushed on. "Hinata told me many times to ignore him, but I couldn't. It wasn't fair that I should be given this gift, this eternal youth, when Lee craved it with all of his life, only to have it snuffed out earlier than anyone would see reasonable.

"Somehow I trudged on through my life. Granny Tsunade stepped down a few years after the stuff with Pein and I took over as Hokage. It was what I had always wanted; ever since I was born I just wanted the village to recognize me. I was finally the Hokage, the strongest ninja in the whole village, and I couldn't have cared less.

"Everyone around me was growing older and even though most of them didn't care, I just couldn't tell myself that I deserved to stay young. I beat myself up, figuratively and literally. There were a number of times where Hinata found me lying in a pool of my own blood because I had fought myself so hard.

"Hinata and I had three kids. Hiruzen, named after the Third Hokage; Minato, named after my father the Fourth Hokage; and Kushina, named after my mother. Hiruzen took after the man he was named for and became a great scholar. Minato reached the level of jounin faster than anyone had during peacetime. Kushina eventually took over as Hokage when I realized that an eternally young Hokage could have terrible consequences.

"Things kept going smoothly enough; I stopped hurting myself so bad after Neji died. I know that sounds horrible - he was one of my best friends at one point - but the negativity was suffocating at times. After Hinata died I fell into a pretty bad depression; I took up drinking a lot to keep from hurting myself. Kushina and Minato eventually got me to quit that and I took up training my body again. I had 'let myself go in my old age,' they said.

"That got me through the next few years until Minato and Hiruzen were killed on missions. By this time the only people I had left were Kushina, Sakura, and Killer Bee, who I met after becoming Hokage. He was the jinchuuriki of the Eight-Tails so we got along pretty well. He lived a long time because of the chakra it gave him, too. Sakura lived a long-ass time 'cause of the seal Granny Tsunade gave her that stored extra chakra in her forehead.

"Eventually they died, too. Kushina was the last one to go. She was Hokage until the day she died; longest reign of all the Hokages as far as I know. By that time I only had grandkids left, and I knew they could handle themselves just fine. I didn't want to leech my life onto theirs since I had nothing else, so I left the village.

"I travelled far away, I wanted to get away from the village that had been my whole life for… 180 or so years. It felt good for a while. I still remembered the pain of watching everyone fade away, but being in new surroundings helped."

The tears had stopped by now. Naruto simply looked like he was concentrating now. "I went to a bunch of different places, even further than the Land of Iron, which was the furthest that anyone in my time knew about. I learned a lot about the world in my travels and a few hundred years later I decided it was time for me to face the village again.

"By the time I returned, all of the Hidden Villages were gone, replaced by Archadia, Dalmasca, and Rozarria. The Land of Water had disappeared entirely, and no one took up the empty space that had been the Land of Earth. The Leaf Village had turned into the bustling capital known as Rabanastre, with no mention of the Hokage or anyone who remembered me. So I disappeared again, but this time I stayed nearby. I wandered around the desert, rescuing caravans and things like from wild beasts and bandits, just like I had done in my younger days."

"The Yellow Flash," Reks muttered.

"Combine my blond hair with the speed I moved at and it's no wonder people came up with the name," Naruto shrugged. "It's just a funny coincidence that used to be my father's nickname as well."

Naruto looked over at his charge carefully. "Do you have any questions, Reks?"

The boy sat speechless for a just a moment, trying to take in everything that had been told to him. He believed every word; after all, Naruto had no reason to lie, especially in such an elaborate way.

"The first thing that comes to mind is… Are you immortal?"

Naruto smirked slightly. "Sort of. Like I said, my body doesn't age, so I'll never die from growing old. Sickness doesn't affect me either, since all the things that make me ageless also give me an insane immune system. No, at this point the only thing that'll take me out is dying in battle. I can still be killed by something strong enough… or so I assume. I've never really tried."

"Your depression, and the way you hurt yourself…" Reks began carefully, knowing it would be a touchy subject. "How do you hold that all back? You seemed like a normal seventeen year-old when I first met you."

"Remember how I told you about the villagers? They hated me when I was younger. They despised me for carrying the Nine-Tailed Fox, though I didn't know at the time. I had to put on a happy face and push through everything if I wanted them to acknowledge me."

"Can the Fox escape?" Reks whispered.

"Not unless I die. And even then it'll be a few years until it can reform itself."

Silence fell between them for a short moment. "Jiraiya… your master's will," Reks muttered. "Do you still believe in it?"

Naruto smiled, the first true smile that Reks had seen since the tale began. "With all of my heart. I made a promise to Master Jiraiya and to Nagato. I never go back on my promises. Even after all this time, that's still my nindo… my ninja way."

* * *

_Elsewhere…_

"**The Uzumaki pest defeated the entite."**

"**Yes, we all saw it."**

Beings of great power over the land of Ivalice had gathered. These beings governed the happenings of men. These beings were known to some as 'Fate.'

"**We cannot risk sending anything more powerful without alerting the humes to our presence."**

"**The humes already work to destroy themselves. Surely we can spare another entite. He will not expect such a blatant attack-"**

"**Entites will not defeat this foe,"** the tallest of the beings interjected. **"The power he possesses dwarfs any entite we could conjure."**

"**Then how should be defeat such a threat to our power?"** The others gathered echoes these feelings - if an entite could not defeat Uzumaki, what could?

"**I have already set in motion events that will pull Uzumaki to his demise,"** the leader boasted, **"and we will also gain the ally which we have been watching in Rabanastre."**

* * *

The next day, Reks and Naruto made their way back to the Estersand. Naruto suggested heading towards the Giza Plains to work on teaching Reks water walking, but the younger of the two wanted a break from dangerous situations after Nabudis.

So Naruto continued training Reks is wall climbing while also continuing his physical conditioning and elemental training. Naruto had also begun teaching Reks stealth techniques to go with his speed. He told Reks that stealth was a big part of being a shinobi. Speed and stealth together could create a formidable opponent even to the strongest juggernaut.

The days rolled on in this fashion. Reks and Naruto both spent all day training in their own ways. Fukasaku had appeared and told Naruto to test out absorbing the natural energy in the air and holding it in. So far Naruto could only hold Sage Mode for a few seconds; it was better than what he had been able to do before, but it wouldn't help in battle, especially since he had to stay still longer than he remembered to gather the energy.

After several more weeks, Naruto grew restless. His progress with Sage Mode had all but halted entirely. Even Reks was having trouble with his training. He could climb walls and the cliff faces with his chakra, but his progress in elemental manipulation had halted as well.

"Reks, I think it's time for a change of pace," Naruto said. Reks halted his practice and the fifty shadow clones around him disappeared.

"What's up, Naruto?"

"Both of us are basically stuck in our training at the moment," Naruto explained. "I can't help you with your elemental training; the problem is simply in your chakra control. As for me, I can't gather any energy for Sage Mode because the air is saturated with spiritual energy, which throws off the balance once I gather it in."

"So what are we gonna do?" Reks wondered. "Surely you're not thinking of going back to Nabudis."

"Of course not." Naruto shook his head. "No, I think the only way to move forward is for me to leave for a while."

"What do you mean by that?" Reks remembered the story of Naruto's past; he was prone to disappearing without notice.

"I'm going to check out some leads that the toads gave me about Sage Mode. The Elder Sage, Fukasaku, told me that there was a huge concentration of natural energy in the direction of the Giza Plains."

"So that's why you wanted to head there," Reks realized. "You could have just told me that, Naruto. But why do you have to go alone?"

"Well for one, you warned me that it's super dangerous, and we've already seen how that went," Naruto replied. "You'd be better off out here sticking to your training, Reks. Master Jiraiya did something like this to me when I was younger… except his method was just tossing me off a cliff and hoping I made it out."

"So you're just leave me out here and hope I make some kind of huge breakthrough?"

"It's slightly more dangerous without me here, and life-or-death situations are always the best way to get a handle on techniques that you just can't nail down." Naruto smirked at his student. "I'm not worried for your safety; you're strong enough to tackle anything in the desert, even the Wild Saurians… as long as you don't try facing of with two or three of them at a time… probably."

"'Probably,' well that sounds good enough to me." Reks reached out and shook Naruto's hand firmly.

The older man stayed silent for just a moment. "Thank you, Reks."

"For what?"

"For not changing how you see me after hearing all of that."

"You did describe yourself as the #1 Most Unpredictable, Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja, after all," Reks joked.

* * *

_Several days later…_

Naruto felt a bit guilty about leaving Reks behind. He had left the boy out in the wilderness to live for himself. He had barely remembered Kurama's warning about 'Fate' wanting to make sure Reks died since he had been saved. The Estersand was a quiet place, though. Reks would catch wind of anything huge coming after him instantly and get the hell out of dodge if he couldn't fight whatever it was.

And if he couldn't get away, Naruto had left a few hundred shadow clones behind to watch over him.

'_He'll be fine,'_ Naruto told himself one last time as he entered the arid expanse of the Giza Plains. _'I need to focus on my own goal for right now.'_

Naruto walked calmly through the dry plains, ignoring the wildlife nearby. The essence of the Nine-Tailed Fox kept the weaker creatures away, though he did have to fight off some large, wolverine-like monsters at one point.

He quickly found the village in the center of the plains. Seeing no guards posted he walked right in, only stopped when he saw a few of the nomads take notice of him.

"If it all possible," Naruto began in a friendly voice, "could I be directed towards a village elder or someone of that sort?"

"I'll take you to Elder Brunoa," one of the nomad women answered. "Right this way."

Naruto nodded and followed the young woman to a tent set up in the middle of the camp. Sitting in front of the tent was an elderly woman, whom Naruto assumed to be Elder Brunoa.

"Elder, this man wishes to speak with you," the woman said before returning to her previous work.

"Oh, and what might you seek of me?" the elder asked, motioning for Naruto to sit with her.

"Thank you." Naruto sat across from Brunoa. "I'm not sure of where to start, but I was given a tip that this place and your people are very in touch with nature." Brunoa nodded. "I have a special ability that allows me to drawn in energy from nature and increase my abilities."

To show what he was talking about, Naruto gathered natural energy from the air, noticing that it was much easier here than in the Estersand. The telltale signs of Sage Mode appeared in and around his eyes before fading a few seconds later.

"The problem is that the air is oversaturated with spiritual energy, making it difficult to maintain the natural energy," Naruto finally explained.

"Hrrmmmmm…" Brunoa looked at the boy before her. "What you say is true. You are even more in touch with nature itself than our people, something I did not think possible in this day and age." The elder paused for just a moment to take in his features. "What did you say your name was?"

Naruto bowed his head slightly. "My apologies, Elder. My name is Naruto Uzumaki."

"You are the 'Yellow Flash' that the city folk speak of," Brunoa said with an air of certainty.

"That is correct."

"You have saved my people on more than a few occasions," Brunoa said. "We would be happy to accommodate you in any way possible."

"Thank you, Elder." Naruto bowed his head once more. "Can you think of anything at all that would help me?"

Brunoa smirked, the mirth dancing across her aged features. "I think I have just the ticket, Yellow Flash." She turned to one of the nearby nomad women. "Sara, bring me one of the sunstones that Jan brought in today."

Sara brought over a basket full of jagged yellow and orange gems. "Take the brightest of the gems in your hand, Yellow Flash." Naruto did so and immediately understood what the elder was thinking.

"These rocks are full of pure natural energy," Naruto stated.

"As I expected. Please feel free to take all of the sunstones we have available, Yellow Flash."

Naruto looked at the Elder curiously. "Are you sure? It wouldn't be a terrible inconvenience, would it?"

"We make dozens of these every day, Yellow Flash," Brunoa explained. "We can afford to spare a few to the man who saves us from beast and bandit alike. I assume you have a way to comfortably carry the stones, by the way."

"Yeah, should be no trouble at all. Just let me test this out real quick."

Naruto shut his eyes and focused on the energy he could feel coming from the small stone in his hand. After a few seconds the energy in the stone faded away and Naruto's pupils became flat like a toad's with an orange pigment over his eyelids. All of the nomads in the village could feel the clear difference that this transformation held over his previous attempt.

The power faded off after what felt like half a minute. Naruto frowned slightly. _'She said this was the best of the whole batch, but it only held enough energy to power Sage Mode for thirty seconds. Whatever, I'll just have to make the time count when I need it.'_

"This will serve me wonderfully, Elder," Naruto said as he stood up. He quickly sealed the remaining stones into a scroll and bowed deeply to the elder. "Thank you very much."

"Anything for one who values nature such as yourself."

* * *

_Chapter 6 End_

_Naruto's history is changed a little bit in this story compared to canon. I find the entire thing with Madara and Obito to be unbearably stupid, so the canon storyline stops at Pein for me in this case. Other changes will become apparent later in the story. This of course explains why Naruto can't use the Jinchuuriki Mode: he never learned how to use it._

_I've been planning since the beginning to have the sunstones be a substitute for Sage Mode. I feel like it was a wonderful way to sort of 'nerf' Naruto since he would otherwise be horrendously overpowered for the world on Final Fantasy XII._

_Next chapter we finally get into the main story of FF12. Hope you guys are looking forward to it!_


	7. Thunderstruck

Many months had passed for Naruto and Reks. Naruto checked in on his student every so often, but he always left within the next day saying he still had important business. Reks would have thought Naruto was ditching him if the man didn't reappear almost every month.

It astounded Reks how Naruto could show up without so much as a warning and then leave without a sound. He had improved by leaps and bounds in his own speed and stealth, but Naruto was simply on another level. There was nothing Reks could do to compare with Naruto's thousand years of shinobi training, so he didn't try. He knew he wouldn't be able to match up, so why waste time fighting for an unattainable dream? Nothing would come from beating Naruto anyway.

Despite knowing all of this, Reks still pushed himself as hard as he could. He wanted to gain power to protect Vaan and the others in Rabanastre. The Archadian Empire had fully moved into the country by now and had essentially taken over. It was only by the grace of Dalmasca's surrender after the death of King Raminas that the capital city still stood.

Naruto trusted Reks to learn everything he needed to know on his own. He had trusted Reks to survive in the Estersand without any help. He had trusted Reks to build his own ninja way.

He looked down at the weapon strapped to his belt. _'Well… maybe a little help.'_

* * *

_Flashback_

_After leaving the Giza Plains, Naruto had travelled across the land of Ivalice, setting up a spy network of sorts. Jiraiya's spy network during the days of the Hidden Villages had been legendary and Naruto knew that information was worth more than money. Setting up an information trade in Archadia and Rozarria would be invaluable for the future._

_Rozarria had been easy enough to infiltrate. They were on guard against the threat of Archadian forces, but they were also accepting any Dalmascans that had fled after the fall of King Raminas. The Rozarrian border patrol was wary of the lowly merchant who claimed to have fled from an outpost in the Estersand after the Archadian conquest, but he was let through after a brief search of his belongings had uncovered nothing of suspicion._

_Naruto had spent two months building up his information network in Rozarria before leaving under the guise of a trader heading for Rabanastre. He had stopped by to check up on Reks before trying his hand at infiltrating the Archadian Empire._

_That proved to be a more difficult task, as the empire was fully militarized. He eventually made his way into the seedy underbelly of the capital city Archades. He found that information was already somewhat of its own currency but many in the city were also completely loyal so he had to be careful what intel he asked for._

_After stopping by the Estersand to see Reks once more, Naruto made his way into Rabanastre. The Archadian occupation of the city made it even more difficult to enter secretly than Archades, but he wasn't here to set up more of his spy network. Naruto was here to find the royal treasure storage. There was a prize in those vaults that would make a wonderful gift for Reks once he learned to wield it._

_And so Naruto found himself searching through the storage room. The Archadian forces had clearly been through already, as most of the room was in a state of disarray. Despite this he quickly located the weapon he was looking for. He knew the soldiers wouldn't have taken it; who would want a sword hilt without a blade?_

_Stowing away the hilt in a scroll, Naruto turned to leave when his eyes fell upon a statue with pale lavender eyes_

"_Hinata," he muttered._

_He had heard that they Hyuuga were the last of the Leaf Village clans to die out before King Raithwall established his monarchy in Ivalice. Hinata's children had been infused with the Uzumaki's enhanced life force, giving the clan heads longer life spans and higher combat skills. These traits passed on to future generations, although the Hyuuga's signifying trait, the Byakugan, disappeared from the main branch shortly after Naruto's generation._

_Naruto gazed at the statue, depicting a Hyuuga clanswoman. It looked vaguely like his deceased wife, but Naruto knew otherwise. Still, he could not break his gaze from the cold, lifeless eyes before him._

"_**Naruto, someone is coming!"**_

_The voice of the Nine Tails broke Naruto from his thought and he quickly jumped to the ceiling, clinging to it with his chakra, to avoid detection._

_Naruto watched silently as a hidden door opened to reveal a young boy with platinum hair. The boy stumbled over some trinkets on the floor before rummaging around the place, muttering under his breath._

_Finally the boy triggered a switch, causing the head of the statue that had fixated Naruto to open, revealing a bright orange orb. With a mischievous grin the boy grabbed the orb and examined it._

"_Quite a performance."_

_Naruto looked at the well-dressed man who had just appeared from another hidden entrance. 'Is everyone trying to get in here tonight?' he wondered._

"_Who are you?" the boy asked the new arrival._

"_I play the leading man, who else?" he replied. Naruto smirked. He liked this guy's style. "Fran, the magicite."_

_A viera appeared behind the young boy. "Now then, I'll take-" Her ears twitched at sensing another person in the room and she looked straight up. "Who are you?" The other two followed her gaze._

"_How are you standing on the ceiling?" the boy asked._

"_Oh, what a feeling, when we're dancing on the ceiling," Naruto replied in a sing-song voice. "You can call me the 'Yellow Flash.' As for how I'm standing up here, that's not important." Naruto quickly used a body flicker to reappear near the exit. "What is important are the guards headed this way." With a small wave, he disappeared without a sound._

_Naruto made his way out of the city, dodging the resistance forces battling with the Archadian guards. He would have helped, but he couldn't fight the large airships overhead without causing them to crash into the city. Killing innocent people wasn't high on his list of favorite activities, so he made his exit peacefully._

_He found Reks the next day and presented his gift._

"_This is an old relic from my time, Reks," he explained as he unveiled an ornate sword hilt._

"_A hilt?" Reks was confused. "What good is that without a blade?"_

"_You're a ninja now, Reks," Naruto chided. "Look underneath the underneath." He focused his chakra into the hilt and a yellow beam extended from it, about twice the length of the hilt. "This is the Sword of the Thunder God. It belonged to the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju." Reks examined the energy-imbued blade. "It's infused with lightning chakra, so I figured it would be a perfect fit for you. It's better than trying to match a standard kunai against a full-length sword anyway."_

_The blade dispersed and Naruto handed the sword over to Reks, who reenergized it immediately. "The best part is you can't break it," Naruto continued. "The lightning will cut through just about anything that isn't fortified by an insane amount of chakra or magic, and even if the blade does break you can just reenergize it again."_

"_This is great! Thanks, Naruto.!"_

_End Flashback_

* * *

That had been just a few days ago. Reks had taken time to practice with his new weapon, but the small burnt spots on his arms showed he needed to be careful with how he handled the electrified blade.

Fortunately, energizing the blade took next to no effort. Naruto had been slightly confused by this, claiming that regulating the lightning chakra for the weapon should have taken more control than the rudimentary attacks that Reks had learned so far.

"I think I figured out a trick to that," Reks had said. "I thought about how you said you couldn't control your chakra well enough to use the normal Clone Jutsu but Shadow Clones are second nature to you. I wondered if that might be the same case with me, since I already had experience with magic." Naruto's eyes had lit up and he had agreed that Reks' conclusion could be very possible. "I just focused my chakra into the sword - probably more than I needed to - and it works."

He'd told Reks to try some of the tougher jutsu on the scroll rather than starting at the beginning. The starter jutsu usually took more control than power than the advanced jutsu, except in extreme cases such as the Rasengan.

So Reks set about his new training. He tried some of the tougher jutsu, but made no progress. Finally he settled on one particular technique that had caught his eye from the beginning. He had avoided the technique simply because he knew better than to try something like that from the start. But now not only did he have Naruto's permission, it was what he was supposed to do.

Reks read the description of the jutsu, written in a style very different from Naruto's. _'I wonder who wrote these scrolls. I think he said he left them with the toads. Maybe they're from his days back in the Leaf Village.'_ Despite that time being a thousand years ago, Reks didn't find that difficult to believe. He had certainly seen stranger things from Naruto that thousand year-old scrolls.

"So all I need for this jutsu is to focus a ton of lightning chakra in my hand, right?" Reks asked himself. "Sounds easy enough." He set the scroll down and moved a few paces away to try. After a few moments he could see the energy start to build up, but he was distracted when a loud noise came from an area not too far away.

"_I think that's near that village on the river,'_ Reks realized. _'What could have happened?'_

He quickly made his way towards the village to find all of the citizens standing outside looking worried. "What's going on?" he asked the first person he ran in to.

"There was a massive ruckus, almost like a cave in," the man explained. "It came from the Barheim Passage." He pointed to the outcropping in the cliff where Reks could seem dust billowing from a cave.

"**RRRRRWWWWWAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!"**

A massive roar echoed across the desert sands to where they were standing.

"That was no ordinary cave in," Reks said before dashing away to the cave entrance.

Reks heard the telltale sounds of a battle up ahead as he entered the passage. _"I knew it!'_ Finally he came upon a large arena that was almost entirely filled up by a massive green and blue insect-like creature. What caught Reks' attention wasn't the incredibly-huge mimic; it was the four figures fighting against it down below.

"Vaan?" he muttered. What in Ivalice was his brother doing here? He didn't recognize the fancy-dressed man or the viera, and he couldn't get a good look at the fourth. "Not important right now; I've gotta help or they'll all be killed by this thing."

Thinking quickly, Reks applied his chakra and ran straight up the wall. He moved silently so as to not alert the large mimic to his presence. Finally reaching the ceiling, Reks took a moment to regain his sense of balance. _"How does Naruto stand upside down so much like it's nothing?'_ Shaking his head clear, Reks formed the required hand seals and charged up his attack.

Down below, things were starting to look grim for Balthier and his companions. The Mimic Queen kept firing back any magic attacks they could use, and they just didn't have enough physical power to take down something that big. _'I could use a bigger gun- wait, is that birds chirping?'_

"Chidori!"

A human-sized streak of blue electricity plummeted from the ceiling, cutting straight through the mimic and cleaving it in two from tip to tail. Reks hit the floor with a massive impact that shook the entire arena.

"Reks?"

The boy looked up wearily as the energy faded from his hand. Vaan was safe at least, but the whole passage would be coming down soon after that shockwave. Reks was spent, though. The warning that Chidori had on the scroll about it using up tons of chakra wasn't a joke. The last thing Reks saw before falling into sleep was his brother running towards him as stones started falling from above.

* * *

Naruto's ears perked up as a memory from a dispelled clone hit him. They lost sight of Reks.

Naruto took a moment to ponder that. While he was incredibly impressed that Reks had given his clones the slip (likely without even knowing) he was also worried. If his clones couldn't find the boy that meant he wasn't in the open desert anywhere.

Another clone memory hit him, relaying a message about the cave in that had happened near where Reks had been seen. Naruto quickly dispelled all the clones he had nearby and left for the Estersand. His Sage training could wait a bit.

As he neared the entrance to the Barheim Passage, he noticed several familiar figures standing around a body lying on the ground. _'Those three from the other night, but what happened to Reks?'_ He jumped and landed at the edge of the outcropping.

"Yo," he greeted them casually, despite the serious look on his face.

"You," Balthier said with a hint of surprise. "Our paths seem destined to cross, Mr. 'Yellow Flash.'"

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"We were fighting a monster inside, and doing a rather poor job of it," Balthier explained. "This lad here showed up, falling right from the ceiling covered in blue lightning like I've never seen before."

Naruto's eyebrows shot up at that. _'__Chidori? Well I guess his theory was right.'_ "If that's the case, there's nothing wrong with him. He's just tired after using that move."

"And how do you know anything about it?" asked the young boy kneeling over Reks.

"I taught it to him," Naruto answered plainly. The young boy's eyes shot up to look at Naruto. "From the angry look you're giving me, and the way you're acting really protective of him, I'd guess you're Reks' brother, Vaan." The boy nodded. Naruto turned to face the others there. "I don't believe we've been formally introduced. My name is-"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto turned towards a voice he recognized and saw someone that should have been dead.

"Basch."

* * *

_Chapter 7 End_

_I'm not super happy with how this turned out, but I don't see a way of redoing it better. I've been planning this meeting (including the Chidori) for a while, but I never really planned out what would be said during the meeting… just that it would happen._

_Reks receiving the Sword of the Thunder God wasn't planned from the start, but it seemed appropriate after I did a bit of research on it. Hope my explanations on chakra aren't putting people off. I know I'm taking some liberties there._

_Like I said, we've finally gotten into the main story of FF12. Thanks to those who've stuck around from the start, and welcome to the new people! This story will probably move at a very strange pace since I don't have a lot of things planned out step by step, but I do think it'll be a good read!_


	8. Hiatus Notice

Going on a bit of a hiatus in order to plan things out. I haven't had any motivation to write recently, and that upsets me. Rather than forcing out a mediocre set of chapters, I'd like to take some time to think things through and actually plan out how I want the next few parts to go. I already have some things planned out, but they're very specific ideas in certain places rather than ideas that cover the entire area. For instance, I have a plan for one thing I want to happen aboard the Leviathan, but I don't have anything else planned out for it. That's also quite a bit down the road for where the story is at right now.

I don't know how long it'll be before I return to this, but I'm not going to drop this story. I've dropped too many stories with better premises than this one so I feel like I'd be insulting the other stories if I didn't continue. Hope you guys continue to read and enjoy once the hiatus is over. Thanks everyone!


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